Tire Test - Continental Race King Sport

Test Summary

Compare up to 3 tires

The Continental Race King Sport 29 x 2.2 mountain bike tire is the cheapest version of the Race King. It has a 3/84 TPI wire bead casing and no special Pure Grip or BlackChili compound. The Sport line is the most basic version from Continental, don't confuse this tire with the RaceSport version. This tire was donated by a reader from Belgium who was really curious about the differences between wire bead and folding bead tires. Thanks, Teun!

Personally, I really like the Race King on the rear and an X-King on the front. This probably explains why there are so many tests of Race Kings on Bicycle Rolling Resistance, I've always wondered it it's really necessary to spend a lot of money on expensive tires. Weight, TPI, Size etc are easy to compare, but the rolling resistance part is much harder without an exact rolling resistance test and comparable data.

The Race King Sport is quite heavy for an XC style tire. With a specified weight of 750 grams, it's close to the weight of more heavy duty tires. When examining this tire, the tread pattern seems exactly the same as the other Race Kings. Continental doesn't say anything about what kind of rubber is used on this tire, I guess it's just the cheapest rubber they have.

Measured weight is 712 grams, which is lighter than the specified weight of 750 grams. Size wise, the 29 x 2.2 Sport version of the Race King has the exact same dimensions as the other Race Kings. With a carcass width and height of 54 mm, this means this tire has a lot of air volume.

Use the formula: RR (watts) = CRR * speed (m/s) * load (N) to calculate rolling resistance at a given speed and load

Considering it's low price, rolling resistance is quite good. Rolling resistance is only 0.1 to 0.7 watts higher than the slightly more expensive Race King Performance. It does outperform many much more expensive tires of other well-known brands like Maxxis, Kenda, and Vittoria.

Puncture Resistance Test Results

Puncture Resistance Test Result (higher is better)

Puncture Resistance Tread

6

Puncture Resistance Sidewall

4

* Sidewall puncture resistance is new data that has been added after writing this review.

While rolling resistance is good, it scores very low on the puncture resistance test. It doesn't seem like this tire has any added puncture resistance protection. This is something I've also noticed after testing the cheap Vittoria Zaffiro road bike tire.

Conclusion

With the Race King Sport, Continental delivers a decent tire for its price. Rolling resistance is higher than the much more expensive Race King RaceSport and almost equal to the slightly more expensive Race King Performance. The puncture test is where it suffers from a score of only 6, which is lower than the very fast RaceSport (7) and much lower than the Performance line (11). This seems to be a trade-off that has to be made to fit the price-point.

While rolling resistance isn't that low, the cheapest Race King is still able to outperform much more expensive tires from Maxxis and Kenda in our test. When you don't want to spend a lot of money on tires, the Continental Race King Sport is an excellent choice.